SUGO Cuisine: Italian
Address: 19 Wharf Street, Tauranga
Phone: 07 5714138
Drinks: wine, beer, vermouth
Reservations: probably for dinner
Both Jan and I happened to be in town at 6.30pm one evening last week so we met up at Sugo for a quick bite. Sugo is the new Italian restaurant on Wharf Street where American restaurant Rye used to be. It opened a couple of weeks back to a town suddenly awash with Italian restaurants.
Well , maybe "awash" is exaggerating, but with the return of Volare on The Strand and the arrival of the most excellent Bar Centrale, the CBD is not exactly short of choice for Italian cuisine.
Sugo has done what looks like a simple refurbishment of the space that was Rye, freshening it up a bit and adding a few subtle Italian touch. It looks bright and airy.
The menu - slightly different from that currently on-line - is split into Snacks (6), Entrees (6), Main Plates (6), Neapolitan Pizza (3), Sides (3), and Dolce (7). The snacks include a couple of pizza crust options and a couple of olive dishes; the entrees are mainly salad-based; mains are five pastas plus Chicken Saltinbocca; all in all, as you would expect, very Italian and there is also a smaller vegan menu.
So, we started with drinks...- Madam Sass Pinot Noir 2019 $13
- Akarua 25 Steps Pinot Noir 2018 $15
- Bloody Gin Sour (4 Pillars Bloody Shiraz gin, whites, sugar, citrus) $15
The Gin sour was well made, with a nice head on it from the egg white. The sweetness of the Bloody Shiraz gin worked well with the citrus of the sour. And the Madam Sass Pinot was fruity and smooth. The Akarua Pinot was much drier and probably a bit young; it was much better with food.
And the food. We just wanted to try a few snacky things so had:
- Italian Charcuterie, coppa pelata, salami finocchiona, prosciutto, pickles, garlic pizza crust $26
- Clevedon buffalo ricotta tortellini, pumpkin, burnt butter, sage, parmesan, pine nuts $20 v
- Flash pan fried arrow squid, Romeso sauce, orange, rocket, almond, rosemary $16.5 gf/df
- Fries, aioli $7
It was all very pleasant. You can't see the Romesco sauce in the photo but it was under the squid and was very nice. The squid dish was essentially a little fried squid with the other ingredients comprising a raw salad. It was refreshing if unexciting.
Unfortunately I found the ricotta in the pasta filling grainy and under-seasoned. Again that dish had a component you can't see in the photo, a pumpkin puree under the pasta, which was rich and smooth and worked well with the chunks of sweet pumpkin and pine nuts. It was an interesting comparison to Volare's take on the same dish.
As to the charcuterie we were both a little disappointed. I have charcuterie when I go out to a restaurant because I assume they can get better quality products than I buy at the supermarket or deli. That wasn't the case here and the prosciutto was particularly average.
Admittedly we didn't try any of their main dishes, all of which sound and look very good indeed. But I can't help thinking that with the Italian competition in town right now Sugo has got its work cut out to stand out both from a drink and food perspective, as well as the staff, who seemed young, helpful and friendly, but not exactly the Italian specialists you find at the other rival eateries.
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